


Synchrony

by Andromeda_Chained



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Timeline, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Blow Jobs, Character Development, Consort Kylo Ren, Dominant Armitage Hux, Emperor Hux, Empress Rey, F/M, Force-Sensitive Rey, Hux is Not Nice, Inappropriate Use of the Force, Kylo Ren Angst, M/M, Porn With Plot, Sex, Submissive Kylo Ren, Switch Rey, Threesome - F/M/M, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 12:11:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9726032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andromeda_Chained/pseuds/Andromeda_Chained
Summary: Kylo Ren has served Emperor Hux since he was a rising general, and the two have been on-again, off-again lovers for years. But their relationship suffers a blow when Hux weds Rey Palpatine, the newly discovered heir of the late Emperor, for political advantage. What neither knows is that Rey, like Kylo, is strong with the Force, though she hasn’t yet realized it. And when the Empire’s growing conflict with the Resistance finally erupts, all three of them find their loyalties tested–both to their ideals, and to each other.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so excited to be writing my first-ever fic for the amazing Reylux fandom! You guys deserve all the porn with plot, so I'm here to contribute as much as I possibly can. I'm very new to this, so I'm extremely grateful to my co-author/beta/all around lovely friend emperorjessie for helping me out with plot, character details, editing, pretty much everything you can think of. You can also follow us on Tumblr at princesse-de-la-rue (me) and reyren (her). 
> 
> Thanks for reading!

The wine swirled languidly in the cup as Kylo poured it, stopping at the halfway point. The emperor would have ample opportunity to drink himself into a stupor _ after _ his wedding.

“Fill it up all the way,” Hux called. 

Kylo grimaced. “Hux, it’s eight in the morning.”

“Then it’ll have plenty of time to wear off before the ceremony begins.” 

Kylo sighed and did as he was told. Gingerly holding the brimming cup, he brought it to the edge of the bath and set it down. The emperor was all but enshrouded in steam, reclining against the edge of the marble pool. Kylo’s face burned--less at the hazy but unmistakable outline of his naked skin under the water, and more at the almost oppressive heat rising off the surface. Hux liked his baths hot and everything else cold.

“Fine, but don’t come crying to me when you’re too sloshed to get it up tonight,” Kylo quipped.  

“I don’t think I’ll have any problems.”

Kylo considered another snippy reply, but decided against it. He straightened and turned to leave, only to be stopped by Hux’s hand on his ankle. 

“Here, first sip is yours.” 

“Afraid I’ve poisoned you?”

“No, poison isn’t your style. If you wanted to kill me you’d stab me directly in the gut, and you’d have done it years ago.”

Kylo sat down behind him and propped himself up on one hand. “I could do it now. I’ve got every reason to.”

Hux smirked. 

“Kill you,” Kylo murmured, leaning down toward him, “take over the Empire…” 

“You’d be shit at it.”

Kylo’s lips brushed over his ear. “...claim the Lady Rey for myself…”   

“You’d  _ definitely _ be shit at that,” Hux rejoined, snaking his hand through Kylo’s hair. “You don’t know the first thing about women.”

Kylo nipped at his neck. “I’m a fast learner.”

“On the contrary,” Hux replied, “you never learn.” Before Kylo could react, Hux had yanked him into the water with a magnificent splash. Kylo swore at the shock of heat, and Hux laughed at him. “You were looking a little grimy; you should be thanking me.”

“All right,” Kylo grinned. “Have it your way.” He seized the wine and drained almost half of it in one pull. 

“Some bridegroom you are,” Hux chided him, having snatched the cup back. 

“Some groom you are,” Kylo echoed, “naked in the bath with another man, on the morning of your wedding.” He moved closer, hands gliding up the emperor’s chest, beginning to feel the wine seeping into his head. Hux’s skin was damp and gleaming, flushed from the heat, and salty when Kylo pressed his lips against it. 

“I’m sure the Resistance would enjoy nothing more than to off me on my wedding day,” Hux said, leaning back. “I’ve got to have my personal guard with me at all times.” 

Kylo grinned. Emboldened by the alcohol, he sucked at the spot where his throat met his collarbone, relishing the sigh that escaped his lips before he had the chance to suppress it. It was hard to get a reaction out of Hux with words, but with  _ touch… _

Hux kissed him, lips hard and tinged with the bitterness of the wine. Kylo pulled him forward, deeper into the water, pleased at his small victory. He knew, of course, that eventually Hux would get out, dress in his ceremonial robes, and be the emperor again; and he himself would be nothing more than the man in black, shadowing him at a proper distance, hand always on the hilt of his saber. But concealed in this inner chamber, enclosed by stone walls and clouds of steam, they were nothing more than bodies. No longer attempting to hide his intentions, he slid his hand between them.

The sharp intake of air between clenched teeth was the closest thing to a moan the emperor would allow himself to emit, but it was enough for Kylo to know he had gained the upper hand. Hux was already hard, already pushing his shoulders downward, and Kylo willingly followed the unspoken order, dipping his head under the surface. Eyes closed, he guided the other man into his mouth, tasting the sweetness of the water along with the familiar taste of his flesh. Hux’s fingers were firmly entwined in his hair as his head moved, took the emperor's cock deep in his throat. After years of practice, Kylo thought with satisfaction, his skills had become formidable. Though he could neither see nor hear his lover’s reactions, he could feel his grip tightening, his hips arching forward. 

Only when his lungs began to burn did Kylo finally come back up, though he continued to stroke the emperor's length at a steady pace. Hux's face was drawn, a strange expression of pleasure and pain that Kylo was all too used to seeing. 

“You're a bastard, Ren,” he panted. 

Now it was Kylo's turn to smirk. “What, you didn't like it?” He leaned in to kiss him again, but Hux stopped him.

“You know we can't do this right now.” 

Kylo let go of him. The rippling of the water quieted as they sat in stillness. “So this is it?” he muttered, after a moment of silence. “We're just...not going to do this anymore?”

“That's not what I said,” Hux replied stiffly. “I just said right now.” 

Kylo bit his lip. He knew he shouldn't say it, but his irritation got the better of him. “Because you're going to be fucking that girl instead.” 

“I'm going to be fucking my  _ wife,  _ yes,” Hux snapped. 

Was there even a good way to say  _ So we can fuck exclusively each other for six years but the moment you’re offered a particularly tempting vagina I’m no longer of use to you?  _ It was a huge oversimplification, of course, but the nuances of Hux’s political career were hardly sufficient to cool his rising anger. 

“Fine.” He climbed out of the bath, clothes dripping. “This wouldn’t have been the first time you dropped me for a woman.” 

“Since your selective memory appears to have failed you, I actually dropped that woman for _ you _ .” 

“And what did you say, Hux? When you came back? You told me something.”

The emperor shifted uncomfortably, almost rolled his eyes. “Kylo…”

“I’d leave everything behind for you. Every _ one _ . That’s what you told me.” 

“That was years ago.”

“So, three years? That’s how long it takes to decide a promise isn’t worth shit, three years?” 

“Things have changed, Ren,” Hux said, an icy edge creeping into his voice. “I’ve got bigger things to worry about.”

Heat rose in Kylo’s chest like steam, and a darkness gathered on the edge of his mind, just out of reach. His hand sought the steel collar around his throat as the shadow roiled, clouding the corners of his vision with black. Hux met his fiery gaze with equally vicious eyes, stark blue under lowered brows. 

“You’re dismissed,” he said. 

Kylo swallowed hard. “Fine. Enjoy your wife.” He turned to go, shoulders tensed forward, hands clenched.  

“Oh, and Ren,” Hux said smoothly, “I’d like you to personally escort the Lady Rey to my chambers after the wedding. And find her something pretty to wear.”

The shadow surged, filling up his throat; but the steel collar repelled it with inexorable force, leaving him seething but motionless. “Yes,  _ Master, _ ” he said. 

The door slid shut behind him as he left, and Kylo was cold again.

* * * * *

It was a romantic story, to be sure. For over a decade the mystery of Palpatine’s last surviving heir had plagued the Empire, casting a shadow of doubt on the new order of successors that took his place. Only five years old when she was abducted and her parents assassinated, she had remained hidden in some remote corner of the galaxy, out of reach of both the Empire and the Resistance, for fourteen years. By the time General Armitage Hux took the throne, citizens of the Empire had all but given up hope of seeing the line restored.

But the new emperor did what no one else had yet attempted. In his first official act, he launched a full-scale investigation, enlisting the galaxy’s most elite detectives, scientists, and even bounty hunters, all dedicated to a single mission: the location and rescue of the Lady Rey, if she still lived. And if they were to succeed, he announced to the public, he had every intention of making her his wife. The political motivations were transparent, of course, but Hux had a formidable arsenal of propaganda on his side; and the narrative he and his cohorts had woven was one of a gallant emperor tirelessly scouring the star systems for the lost princess, and a young girl who would be saved from a life of obscurity and made queen of an empire.  

And indeed, after months of dead ends and fruitless searches, a team of bounty hunters found a young scavenger on the desert planet of Jakku, caked in dust and half-starved, but radiantly alive. The fact that the Lady Rey had chosen to wait for her family through the long years, scavenging to survive when she could have just as easily left for a gentler world, endeared her to the people of the Empire before she even made her first appearance. Truly this girl was Palpatine’s heir, the pride and stoicism of an Imperial in her soul as well as in her blood. And at long last, she would take her place by the emperor’s side, like the stars aligning. 

Yes, it was all very romantic. 

Only one piece was out of place in this lovely tale, Kylo thought for the hundredth time as he escorted the emperor out onto the stage, under the arch festooned with red flowers. He was to stand here at his side for the duration of the ceremony, as the most honored attendant of all. That was his place in the story, the closest he would get to this most portentous of unions. 

As Hux and the various senators and advisors assembled, Kylo scanned the vast crowd that filled the grounds of the capitol building and spilled into the surrounding streets. Beings of every species, of every form and color imaginable, and yet not a single face he recognized. The only people he had ever exchanged words with in the past year were clustered around him under the arch, and out of those, only one had any significance at all. 

Hux made no eye contact with him, didn't even glance in his direction. He was quite in his element, shoulders held back, torso majestically straight. After taking his place at the front of the wedding party, he ever so slightly inclined his head toward the onlookers. This was a favorite routine of his, usually accompanied by a crowd-pleasing smile. 

Like clockwork, the emperor allowed a demure smile to cross his face, deftly playing the part of the blushing bridegroom. The crowd was giddy. But Kylo barely had time to mentally roll his eyes before the old man in the long green robe--Lord Farrin, was that his name?--announced the opening of the ceremony, and he was obliged to straighten and turn his focus forward. 

Even so, Kylo was scarcely conscious of the introductions he was droning out, preferring instead to examine Hux, who stood at perfect attention, expression pleasant but otherwise unreadable. Clad in immaculate white with a blood-red cape that swept halfway down the steps, he looked almost frighteningly  _ clean _ , even among the glittering nobles and austere elegance of the capitol grounds. Kylo drank in the sight of him, plagued by an irrational sense of finality, as if he had only seconds left to memorize an image that would soon wink out of existence. 

He didn't hear the announcement of the Lady Rey's arrival, didn't even see where she had come from, but there she was, at the far end of the long aisle, and the crowd turned as one to greet her. Music rose from hidden speakers, a medley of bells and strings, as she took her first steps. She was still too far away for him to see her face, but her gown shimmered in the midday light as she moved, skirts swelling around her in a golden cascade. As she approached, he found his focus drawn to her bare shoulders, browned and freckled by years under the same sun that now illuminated them with an almost pearlescent gleam. Hux's shoulders were freckled too, he thought absently. 

_ Hux.  _ Dread flitted across Kylo's mind, and he hazarded a glance at the other man's face. His expression remained as pleasantly neutral as before, but despite the awkward angle Kylo thought he could detect the slightest spark of interest in his eyes. It could be worse, frankly. Most of the men around him weren’t even making an attempt to conceal their interest. 

Her foot touched the bottom step, and Kylo snapped back to reality, remembering the one function he had here besides standing and looking important. She was just beginning to fumble with the enormous skirt when he hurried down the stairs, as elegantly as possible, and offered her his hand. She looked up at him as her fingers slipped over his.  Her eyes smiled more than her mouth did, but it was enough. Kylo swallowed as he followed her ascent with his own eyes for just a moment too long, until after an uncertain amount of time he found himself standing back in place, watching blankly as she and the emperor joined right hands, repeated flowery words, exchanged rings. 

He had a vague sense that she had been beautiful, that he had been jealous, that Hux had watched them both with an all-consuming gaze….But that was all. It was as if, with that single glance, she had wiped his memory of all but the cloudiest impressions. His hand moved mechanically to the steel ring around his throat, but all he found there was the starched cloth of his jacket collar. Of course. Hux had allowed him to take it off for the ceremony--it wouldn’t have gone well with his outfit. 

He didn’t hear it, but he saw the emperor’s lips form the words “I do.” Then her lips, then their lips together, in a kiss that was neither as natural as it should have been, nor as methodical as he had wanted it to be. He braced himself for the sting of jealousy to flare in his chest again; but instead there was only a detached fascination at the sight of Hux’s hand cupped lightly under the girl’s chin, his mouth on hers. He’d felt that hand and that mouth so many times that he half expected to see himself in her place, with the emperor tilting his head ever so slightly up instead of leaning down, and with his own grasping fingers in place of the bride’s uncertain touch on her husband’s shoulder. But the synchrony of their bodies was different from the one he’d been privy to, foreign enough to remind him that it was not him, and might never be again. A dry thirst coated his mouth as they broke the kiss. 

* * * * * 

He had drifted through the opulent reception and through the flight to the emperor's summer home on Naboo; but now, approaching the Lady Rey's rooms, he was grinding to a screeching halt. The corridor was devoid of servants; only he would be afforded the privilege of attending the newlyweds in their private quarters. What a  _ lovely  _ week it was going to be. Steeling himself, he knocked on the door.

“Oh! I'm sorry,” came the muffled reply, along with the sound of clothes being tossed around the room. “Coming!” Moments later, the door burst open and out she stepped, wearing nothing but a tiny lace bra and an even tinier and lacier pair of panties. 

“Oh, um….” Kylo did his best to avert his eyes without making it obvious that he was averting them. “The suite is on the other side of the building; you might want a little more...uh…”

She turned her head slightly, eyes narrowed in confusion. In his efforts to look anywhere but in front of him, he glanced into the already disheveled room behind her. “That red thing, on the floor. What's that?” he asked, inclining his chin. 

She picked it up and presented it to him like a child showing off a new toy. It wasn't a far cry from what she had on, truthfully: just a silky red robe with more black lace on the edges. “I don't know what you call it,” she said, “but it's beautiful, isn't it?”

“You should wear it,” he said quickly. “He, um...he likes red.” 

She grinned and and slipped it on. “All right, I’m ready.”

Kylo wished he could share her enthusiasm. It was strange, the utter lack of trepidation in her demeanor as they walked. She had lived in isolation on a backwater planet her whole life; certainly she’d never done anything like this before. The lingerie seemed to indicate that she had at least some idea of what she was getting herself into, but was she entirely aware of what would be expected of her?

“Lady Palpatine,” he began, unsure how exactly to ask an empress if she knew the ins and outs of sexual activity.

“Is that what everyone’s going to call me now?” She crinkled her nose. “It’s such a long name, I get bored just hearing it.” 

“Lady  _ Rey _ ,” he offered. “Are you...well...you are aware of the emperor’s expectations, I assume?” 

“Expectations for what?”

“For tonight.” 

“Oh.” She nodded. “He wants to have sex.”     

Kylo’s eyes widened, and he couldn’t stop the amusement from coloring his voice either. “So you do know.” 

“Do you think I lived under a rock, Lord Ren?”

He raised an eyebrow. 

“Well, it wasn’t a rock; technically it was an AT-AT walker.” She laughed, so he assumed he was meant to laugh as well, despite his horror. They had entered the east wing of the palace now, and would soon reach the set of rooms that had been designated as the honeymoon suite. His pace was dragging, but hers was getting quicker. 

“I’ve read books,” she continued. “And I talked to people, sometimes. I think I can handle it.” 

“But you’ve never…?” 

“Well no, I haven’t actually  _ done _ it,” she said cheerfully. “But there’s always a first time, right?” 

A first time, indeed. There had been no silk and lace for him, no honeymoon suite draped in red velvet curtains and locked behind gold-lacquered doors. The memory of his first time was heavy with the haze of alcohol, a sordid hotel room on Hosnian Prime, his face shoved into cold sheets, while the hard body of the young general he’d just met pressed against him, pressed into him. The burn of envy he’d been avoiding was returning, borne on the half-remembered sensation of thin fingers holding down his shoulders, reaching under him and grasping almost too hard. If Hux had learned nothing since then, he would all but kill this girl.  

The doors were unlocked. Kylo pulled them open with more force than was necessary, ready at this point to deliver Hux his prize and be rid of them both. Part of him hated himself for the way he hated her, fiercely but without conviction, evaporating every time she spoke. Her eyes were wide now, taking in the vivid reds of the room and grazing over the massive bed at its center. Heavy curtains and thick carpet lined the walls and floor, absorbing the sound of their footfalls as they stepped inside. And there was Hux--sitting in an armchair by the bed, clad in a set of silky casual pants, shirt falling open, and sipping a glass of wine like the insufferable cunt he was. Kylo looked closer. They were his clothes. Of course. 

“Close the door, Ren,” he said. 

Kylo hesitated, then obeyed. 

He turned his attention to Rey. “You look lovely in red, darling.”

Her demeanor had shifted: under Hux’s gaze, she shrank ever so slightly, shoulders drawing inward and chin lowered. Her lips, though, still retained the hint of a smile as she glanced sidelong at Kylo. “I thought you might like it.” 

He took a long drink, eyes still studying her over the rim of the cup. After setting it down, he spoke again. “Do you know why I asked you here, Rey?” 

“Yes.” 

He raised his eyebrows just as Kylo had. “I see. And you understand that anything that happens here will stop the moment you request it.” 

Surprise flitted across her face, as if she either took this as a given, or had never been asked her permission for anything. “I do.” 

He set down the cup. “Ren, would you assist the empress in removing her robe?” 

It wasn't a request. Kylo shot him a look, but Hux's face remained impassive as ever. With the dull throb of the gathering shadow in his ears, he approached her, keeping his eyes trained downward--not out of deference, but of fear that she would see the darkness reflected in them. Her form was tense but prepared, her head turning subtly to glance over her shoulder at him. Kylo stood behind her and hooked his fingers under the smooth cloth on each side of her collar bone, sliding it down her arms and letting it drop to the floor. Her body radiated heat like no one he’d ever touched before, like the desert sun was trapped under her skin. The heat found its way to his face, and his cheeks burned. 

Hux allowed himself a moment to admire the lingerie, but the moment was brief. “Take it off,” he commanded. Kylo gritted his teeth, thinking of all the ways he could kill him at this exact moment. The collar hummed as it held the cloud at bay with increasing effort. It was exactly what Hux wanted, of course; to flood him with impotent rage and watch him seethe. Breathing as slowly as he could, he loosened one hook of her bra, then two, then three. He didn’t look. The slight parting of the emperor’s lips told him all he needed to know. On a surge of dark energy he dropped to his knees, grasped the remaining strip of lace, and pulled it to her ankles.   

A breath escaped her, but she stood as tall as her stature would allow, arms resolutely at her sides. Her torso curved before his eyes, a strange and complex pattern compared to Hux’s lines and corners. The air around him pulsated like blood pumping as he rose light-headed to his feet, daring Hux to command him further. 

Hux’s eyes narrowed on Kylo’s neck, and Kylo knew he was seeing the collar light up red, warning that the force was roiling around him. Never once releasing him from his barbed gaze, Hux stood and moved toward them with measured steps. Kylo fought to subdue his rising heart rate, recognizing the predatory set of his body, the nearly cruel line of his mouth. But although they’d played this game countless times before, there was a new piece this time; and for the first time, Kylo could not predict the outcome.   

Hux drew Rey to himself, wrapping his arm around her waist and seizing her lips with his. It was the kiss from the ceremony, but jagged at the edges, slashed through with white heat. He caught her up in his arms and carried her to the bed, falling down on her with the kiss still unbroken. Her leg twined over his, small foot curving to a point, the profile of her body a smooth ribbon of golden skin against the scarlet sheets. Kylo allowed himself the pain-drenched gratification of the sight, the emperor’s pale hand laced in her dark hair, before tearing himself away. Red turned to black behind his eyes as he searched for a way out, any door to open and let air into the stifling warmth. 

“Where are you going, Ren?” Hux’s voice cut through the cloud like frigid rain. He was rising to his knees now, removing his shirt, tossing it to the ground. “Don’t you want to stay and watch?” 

The panic had cleared for the moment, but rage took its place. “No,” he said, with effort. “I’m leaving.” Now turn, he told himself. Turn around and go. 

“I think you want to stay,” Hux replied, even icier than before.  

“Fuck you,” Kylo snarled.

The emperor’s mouth twisted into a knowing smile. “Darling, don’t you think it would be proper for the Lord Ren to remain at his post?” He stared Kylo down, freezing him in place with the force of his gaze alone. “Like a good little soldier?”    

Rey looked back and forth between them, both confusion and curiosity evident in her crimson cheeks and dilated eyes. But something wicked crossed over them too, something not so cold as Hux but darker and wilder. “Stay,” she said to Kylo, and suddenly it was a command. 

He swallowed, throat constricted almost painfully, as he backed into the wall and planted himself there. Hux returned his attention to Rey, satisfied with his first triumph and clearly ready to move on to another. He moved quickly indeed, pressing his lips to her neck, left hand gliding down her taut stomach. For the first time Kylo could see her breasts, small and firm and just a half shade lighter than the rest of her skin. The lightness in his head was returning, urged on by the quickening rise and fall of those breasts, the pull of the emperor’s mouth on each in turn. His own chest was flushed, he dimly realized, and his breath came faster with each of hers. 

There was tenderness in it, but perhaps not what this girl would know or recognize as tenderness. She didn’t know how rare it was for Hux to bend like this, to be anything other than white knuckles and rigid knees. She had no memory of a time when he had been softer still, when his body and Kylo’s own fit together with a tighter coil and a warmer glow.  _ She _ was spared that personalized torture--as ruthless as he might become, and probably would become at any moment now, she wouldn’t have to watch his fingers slide between someone else’s legs, clutching and circling, and be assaulted with the burn of those fingertips all over again, no less searing because they were merely remembered. She wouldn’t recognize that this possessive grasp was as close to gentleness as anything Kylo had felt in months. Or maybe she would recognize it. Maybe someone so starved of touch wouldn’t be all that adept at distinguishing one touch from another. 

For all the thoughts Ren was projecting onto her, Rey herself didn’t seem to be thinking much at all. She gasped and arched into Hux’s hand, holding onto the sheets so tightly the lean muscles in her arms stood out in high relief. Kylo wondered if she had ever touched herself there, during the long nights on Jakku, or if she was feeling all this for the first time. The intensity of her reactions, the way her face twisted from surprise to pain to pleasure, at least suggested the emperor was pulling something from her that she had never been able to reach herself. Hux angled his arm down further, and the kneading motion transitioned to sliding, his fingers disappearing into her and coming back glistening. Between his motions, Kylo caught glimpses of her, the place where her legs met. He’d seen it before, of course...in books...and perhaps a couple of particularly risque paintings? But he’d seen exactly one person naked up close, and that was Hux, and this girl looked nothing like his lover. All of her turned inward, not outward, a line of pink flesh the only indication of what her thighs concealed. And in spite of himself, he wanted to see more. To know more. Hux was too slow, too methodical. If it had been his hand on her hip, his fingers inside her, he would have explored her, tasted her, he would have--

“Take off the fucking collar, Ren,” he heard Hux say, his breath only slightly more belabored then when he last spoke. “You know where the key is.” 

He did. It hung right beside the door, easily accessible but completely forbidden without Hux’s approval. It was a rare event indeed for him to allow Kylo to take it off himself. Kylo almost smirked. The emperor must have been awfully distracted to be so permissive, to grant Kylo back his access to the force. To allow him a small glimpse into the emperor’s consciousness.

He unlocked the collar and set it down. His moment of clarity lasted exactly that long. With the barrier removed, the hovering cloud crashed in on him like an avalanche, bringing the room into crystalline focus, and just as rapidly fading it out again. This cycle repeated with nauseating speed until, by sheer force of will, he centered himself on the spiral of energy emanating from the emperor and empress. Hux’s was tense but controlled, with only a slight edge of the ruthlessness he’d exuded that first night all those years ago. There was darkness in it, but it was forcefully contained, imprisoned behind a mind that was far stronger than his, if also narrower. Kylo shut his eyes for a few seconds, absorbing the familiar coolness of it, the focus. 

But before he had gotten his fill, something else began to swallow it up--another side of the spiral, potent and superheated, coursing with feral energy, and much closer. Warmth crawled up his legs to his core. This wave was darkness and light and wonder and fear, and so much more than he was capable of containing in his current state. His knees all but dissolved under him, and he leaned heavily against the wall, the rhythmic movement of their bodies swimming like a mirage in the sand. There was a distinct femininity to it, sweet and wild and brimming with  _ life _ . 

The blurred image came back into focus, and Rey’s gaze brushed over his. There was no mistaking the fire under her half-lidded eyes. Whether or not she was voluntarily reaching out to him, whether or not she was even aware of it, the iridescent expanse of her consciousness was invading his. It was all there in pieces. He sensed her emotion like it was his own, her thoughts, though most were caught up in Hux-- his Hux who he could feel from her. He could feel the emperor’s hands run over her shoulders, squeezing her chest, but it was his own.

He recoiled instinctively, throwing up the mental walls he had prepared for such an onslaught. Not daring to touch her mind again, he instead poured all his focus into the more tangible reality of what was still happening before him, and had been happening all the while. Hux was withdrawing his hands from Rey and removing the last item of clothing left on either of them, sliding it off his legs. Kylo barely even had time to register jealousy or desire or anything in between before he was on Rey again and the part of him Kylo had most wanted to see was between them, and between them alone. Hux looked at him then, a lock of fiery hair falling in his face, and  _ there  _ was the searing envy, the maddening desire, channeled between them without words. 

It was as if Kylo had pierced through a wall, and unleashed the ferocity he’d been anticipating all night. Hux seized Rey’s legs, forced them apart, and surged into her. A strangled sound came from her throat, and Kylo had to bite back one of his own. Hux moved neither slowly nor gently now, fingers digging into her thighs, while Rey’s hand went to her lips, covering them almost in disbelief. The warmth seeping through him had reached his groin now; and he was hard whether he wanted to be or not, and only growing harder with each thrust of the emperor’s hips, each moan from the empress’s mouth. He groped blindly under his robe, needing only to silence the throb for a moment, to relieve the pressure that was already building to an unbearable intensity. 

“Hands  _ off _ ,” Hux growled, this time unable to keep the strain out of his voice. 

Hating and wanting him more than possibly he ever had, Kylo pulled back his hand, clenching it into a fist against the wave of need that swept over him.  Almost instinctively, he retreated further into himself, though he remained transfixed on them, their pushing and pulling and gasping. But in place of Rey he felt himself, on so many nights before this one, with his back against the bed and his eyes grazing dizzily over the ceiling. Hux’s teeth were sinking into his shoulder as he drove relentlessly into him, the air between them heavy with the scent of his skin. He slowed his furious pace only long enough to grasp him by the hips and drag him to the edge of the bed, plant his feet on the floor, and begin again, harder and faster with the added leverage. Kylo’s lungs burned as he consistently failed to breathe, too consumed by the excruciating clarity of the hallucination to do anything but hold on to the emperor’s rigid forearms like a man drowning. 

The dull ache between his legs had sharpened to a torturous throb, and even with his hands clenched firmly by his sides he could feel it sharpening still. He was certain now that the slightest touch would push him past the point of no return, but touch was a luxury he was forbidden, one that he had to receive vicariously through the writhing form of this _ girl _ , this sunburnt scavenger who had crossed a galaxy to claim the one thing he had left. And yet for all his fury he could no longer separate his consciousness from hers, nor cease to feel in his own body every jolt of pleasure that tore through her. And when Hux’s hand dipped down to stroke the focal point of all her desperation, and Kylo’s own epicenter electrified in response, he knew that whether willingly or not, the two of them had somehow fused. 

Her head was thrown back, hair collapsing against the bed in a shining tangle, throat rippling with ragged breath. Her back arched almost unnaturally as Hux leaned over her with bared teeth, as if he were a hairsbreadth from tearing her apart. His left arm was beginning to shake from the strain of holding himself up, even as his right continued to work on her. His chest heaved, flushed and damp, and despite his own agony Kylo felt a certain perverse satisfaction at knowing the great emperor was having to concentrate every ounce of his willpower on  _ not _ coming. 

But he wasn’t the only one. Kylo’s stomach was tightening with alarming speed, pulse after pulse of sensation running down the length of his erection; and Rey’s moans were rising in pitch and frequency until they were nearly frantic. Through her he felt the furious thrust of Hux inside her, the merciless insistence of his fingers on her clit, the unbearable  _ building _ of something so vast and dark she was sure it would consume her. She turned her head toward him, brows upturned as if in pain or fear, even as her eyes sparkled with wild delight. The wind caught somewhere between his throat and his lungs as the world itself stopped, suspended in place by the eruption that ripped across their bond. Kylo’s vision flashed white and red, shock waves sweeping over him and drawing spasms from his core outward. He saw nothing but her eyes clinging to his face until they were driven shut by the force of her own climax. Dimly he heard her keen, heard Hux inhale hard through his teeth as he followed close behind. 

Kylo’s legs nearly collapsed under him as the spinning of the room slowed and he was aware of himself--and only himself--again. A low ringing continued in his ears. Hux still stood at the edge of the bed but braced himself over Rey’s limp form on his elbows, his heavy breathing muffled against her shoulder. Slowly she ran a hand through his hair, with the last strength she seemed to have left. She was no longer looking at Kylo, but gazed out through heavy lashes at nothing in particular. After a moment lying like this, Hux climbed onto the bed, pulling her with him, and groped for the heavy cover he had rolled back. His eyes fell on Kylo. They narrowed. 

“Ren?” He was looking below his waist, where Kylo could still feel the aftershock receding. “Did you…”

Kylo realized how thin the fabric of his robe was, so thin the wet streaks were easily visible. Yet he was still too bewildered by the fact that it had happened at all to care much about explaining it away. Instead he pushed himself off the wall and pulled the robe tighter around him. “I hope that was as good for you as it was for me,” he said coldly. 

“Kylo…” Hux glanced down. “I…” For a moment he looked…sorry, almost. His hair was not even remotely coiffed now; and with the blanket held uncertain in his hands, he could be the handsome stranger Kylo had woken up to six years ago, both of them shy and sore and immensely hungover. He could be the version of himself Kylo had woken up to after every restful night since then. But the girl who lay next to him, already sleeping, broke his reverie. She would wake in the morning, and the sight would be hers now.                                  

“You can go,” Hux said quietly. 

Kylo pressed his lips together, then dipped his head in assent. He picked up the collar from the dresser where he had placed it. And for the second time that day, he closed a heavy door behind him.  


End file.
